Olson Family Matters

About Us

We are a family of three that is constantly learning and growing in so many ways. Becoming a family has been a constant source of joy and blessing for us.

Troy and Tricia consider “Dad” and “Mom” to be the most amazing roles they have ever had. In addition to those roles, Troy works as a computer applications engineer and Tricia works as a lawyer. Troy also enjoys college football, board games (which he blogs about here), comic books and bad movies (which he also blogs about, here). Tricia enjoys good movies, reading just about any book (but especially mystery novels - a love that began in fourth grade with Nancy Drew novels) and having coffee with friends.

Troy and Tricia met in high school in 1994 and were married in 2002. They spent the next eight years learning how to work as a team. Troy is a self-described procrastinator and claims he produces his best work a few minutes before a deadline. He also can do just about anything with a computer (including building his own arcade machine) and has programmed their entire house in one way or another - Tricia is still waiting for an instruction manual. Tricia has to admit to having a few perfectionist tendencies (except when it comes to cooking or cleaning the house) and has been making to-do lists since kindergarten. It makes us an interesting team, but we have lots of fun together and love each other tremendously! We especially enjoy spending time with our friends, going out to eat, and traveling together (recap of our 2009 Italy trip here).

Throughout their first eight years of marriage, Troy and Tricia each felt a growing desire in their hearts to expand their family by adopting from China. They submitted their application to adopt a few weeks after Tricia’s 30th birthday (minimum age requirement for adopting from China) and, on May 9, 2010, the Olsons were officially a family of three when Madelyn Yihong became their daughter.

Madelyn is a vivacious toddler who finds joy and humor in all things of life. She has an uncanny love of soft rock music, likes to put a smile on other people’s faces, and has a beautiful, active imagination that has added several friends to our family (ask Tricia for the list because, of course she made a list of Madelyn’s imaginary friends). Madelyn is teaching Troy and Tricia how to be parents and they are trying their very best to be good students of the subject.

About The Blog

The purpose of this blog is, first and foremost, to document our journey as a family so that we can look back on our favorite experiences and carry them with us going forward. We are perpetually learning new things and forming/refining /redefining our opinions about parenting and adoption. Putting these things in print seems to help our process of learning. It is also something we hope that our children will enjoy rereading when they are older and something we hope our friends and family will enjoy along the way. We realize that the content is specific to our family, but we are more than happy to share the lessons we have learned as parents and especially about adoption.

We have tried to organize our blog in a way that makes it easy to find information if you are looking for something specific. On the header, you can use the search tool to search for specific terms or the “Categories” tab to find posts on specific topics such as Adoption, China, and Cleft Lip & Palate. Our “Links” tab includes links to our Picasa picture gallery, YouTube video library, and Pinterest board. The "Store" tab points to our Amazon store, which contains items that we personally enjoy using in our house and may mention from time to time on our blog.

Saturday, December 31, 2011

We started our weekend with a visit to the Carousel Santa on Friday night. It was our first official Santa visit! When Santa asked Madelyn what she wanted for Christmas, she was very confident in her answer: "Cookies!"

Afterward, Madelyn used one of the tokens she received as a Christmas gift from one of my co-workers and took a ride on the carousel. Her favorite horse, Razzle Dazzle, was claimed by another little girl before Madelyn could get to him. We were worried that we would need to ask to sit the ride out and wait until Razzle Dazzle was available (there have been tears over this fact before), but Madelyn surprised us and declared that she would ride "Larry" instead. Larry, the Circus Pony. The tiniest horse on the carousel. But his rider had the cutest smile on the whole ride.

After the carousel, we ran (there is no walking with Madelyn) to see the Christmas tree at the other end of the park. It was a magical evening for all three of us.

We ended the evening with Madelyn's request of Santa - cookies.

Never mind what I said about sprinkle-control in our last post. There was a lot of vacuuming afterward. And a bath for a little girl who was covered in green sugar sparkles after taste testing her handiwork.

We celebrated our Christmas together on Christmas Eve morning. Our gift to Madelyn was an awesome Craigslist find: a playhouse! It has been sitting in our backyard for a few weeks now and Troy and I have been beside ourselves in excitement waiting for the big unveil, which went like this:

At first we were a little disappointed by the tame response from Madelyn. But about 15 to 30 minutes after checking out the playhouse inside and out, opening and closing the windows and doors, it was as if a lightbulb went on in her mind and she started jumping up and down shouting, "I got a playhouse, I got a playhouse!" It was adorable. She started serving us pretend coffee and cookies through the window. Well, the coffee was only for Daddy. She told me I wasn't old enough. Heh. I can't wait for the spring and summer months when we can spend more time in the playhouse without puffy jackets!

We spent the rest of Christmas Eve morning relaxing, playing with our Christmas presents, and watching A Muppet Christmas Carol (a family favorite now). It has actually provided a few good talks with Madelyn about sharing happiness with others. It is such a joy to spend time like that as a family - something I will always treasure.

Christmas Eve evening was at Grandpa and Grandma's house. Madelyn was so excited for the evening, that she could not take a nap that afternoon. Daddy even tried taking her for a drive to help her calm down. It was rare fail in terms of putting her to sleep. She talked and talked and talked about Christmas as they drove around for 30 minutes. When she got home and walked through the door, I think she felt compelled to explain why she didn't sleep, so she walked up to me, shrugged her shoulders, and (before I could say anything) said, "Cuz I TOO excited Mama. I didn't sleep."

Madelyn's favorite present of the evening was a plastic ice cream set which she promptly served to everyone. The other hit of the evening was when Grandpa let Madelyn be the caller for our Bingo game!

On Christmas morning, we headed to Nana and Papa's house and Madelyn helped Nana make apple and cherry turnovers. She took her job VERY seriously. (The results were yummy!)

Her favorite gift of the morning was a doctor outfit. After making sure that she had helped everyone finish unwrapping their gifts, Madelyn spent the entire remainder of the morning giving everyone shots. Not sure why that was her favorite, especially since it usually takes 4 people to force-administer a real-life shot to Madelyn!

After a much-needed nap in the car, we headed to Grandpa and Grandma Carlisle's house for the final Christmas celebration. We sang Christmas carols (thanks Uncle Kelly!), ate lots of yummy food, and had our uber-competitive gift swap. There are no holds barred in that game - some even tried to steal gifts from my Grandma! Madelyn received a Toy Story Jessie doll and did not let go of her the. entire. evening. Madelyn tells us she is now Jessie's "owner" (have to have watched Toy Story 2 to understand that one) - and a proud owner she is!

It was Merry. It was Bright. It was Joyful. We are so thankful for our family. We are so thankful for the love of our Lord and Savior. It was a wonderful ending to 2011 - see you all in the New Year!